Device to stop a railway vehicle approaching a bumper



Sept. 7, 1965 E. WILISCH ETAL 3,204,576,

DEVICE TO STOP A RAILWAY VEHICLE APPROACHING A BUMPER Filed Sept. 5, 1963 5 Sheets-Sheet 1 y A'IT R5 Sept. 7, 1965 WIUSCH ETAL 3,204,576

DEVICE TO STOP A RAILWAY VEHICLE APPROACHING A BUMPER Filed Sept. 5, 1963 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 /v EN 0R5 Sept. 7, 1965 WILISCH ETAL 3,204,576

DEVICE TO STOP A RAILWAY VEHICLE APPRQACHING A BUMPER Filed Sept. 5, 1963 3 Sheets-Sheet 5 umllllllilili 3,204,576 DEVICE TO STOP A RAILWAY VEHICLE APPROACHING A BUMPER Erhart Wilisch, Ernst-Sievers-Str. 103, and Berthold Lotze, Bismarclrstr. 50, both of Osnabruck, Germany Filed Sept. 5, 1963, Ser. No. 306,889 7 Claims. (Cl. 104-254) The invention relates to devices to stop a railway vehicle normally called bumper stops or buffers.

The invention is characterized by the bumper being displaceably arranged on the running rails of a railway track with the interposition of frictional members said frictional members being capable of being pressed against the rail head of the running rails with the aid of screws extending transversely of the rails, and by the fact that, in combination with this, the rails are reinforced to withstand bending forces.

The buffering requirements to be met by rail bumpers which are displaceably arranged on the rails by frictional membershave constantly been increased due to the increase in rail traflic. The railway bumper stops have, thus, to cope with a constantly increasing buffering capacity in a decreasing stopping distance.

The weatherproof, easily accessible, easily operable and easily adjustable frictional members are arranged between the rails and the bumper stop. The stresses imposed on the running rails caused by the frictional members have also been increased to the same extent as have the requirements with respect to the capacity of the bumpers. Due to the fact that, in accordance with the invention, the rails are connected with reinforcing elements, the moment of bending resistance of the running rails is increased in such a manner that they are adapted to meet the increased stresses which result from the friction mem bers of the bumper.

The friction members interposed between the rails and' the bumper are of importance. They must be weatherproof, reliable, easily accessible, easily operable and easily controllable. Also, it must be possible to calculate the frictional force of these friction members with sufficient accuracy.

In accordance with the invention, each one of the frictional members comprises an inversely arranged rail section which has one of the undercuts of its head abutting one of the undercuts of the head of the running rail, while a lining preferably consisting of cast iron through which the brake screws are extending, is pressed on the one hand against the running surface of the rail and on the other hand against the bottom of the inversely arranged rail section.

Suitably, the abutment for the braking screws is formed of another member provided with two flanges, the one of said flanges abutting the lining and the other one abutting the other undercut of the head of the running rail. A shaped member especially made for this purpose may serve as a brake holder. But it is also possible to make use again of a rail section or the part of a rail section for these purposes.

The invention is of special importance for the approach of vehicles provided with center bumpers because these vehicles are especially heavy and fast and the requirements to be met by the bumpers with respect to working capacity and stopping distance are especially important in connection with these vehicles. In a preferred embodiment of the invention, the rail bumper is, accordingly, provided with a center bumper device. This may be done in such a manner that the lateral impact triangles of the bumper are convergently approaching the longitudinal center plane in order to very efficiently accommodate the central impact forces of the center bumper. Such rail 3,Z4,575 Patented Sept. 7, 1965 brake bumpers are, however, suitable only for cooperation with vehicles which are provided with center bumpers.

But the rail bumper in acordance with the invention is preferably designed in such a manner that it is capable of cooperation with vehicles provided with both center bumpers as well as those provided with lateral bumpers. In acordance with the invention, the two lateral impact triangles of the rail bumper are connected by at least one transversely extending shaped beam made of steel in the plane of the bumper of the approaching vehicle, said beam having fastened thereon two laterally disposed wooden blocks and a center wooden block. The two lateral blocks are used to engage vehicles provided with lateral bumpers and the center wooden block is provided to engage vehicles provided with center bumpers, and the shaped beam is designed so rigidly that it is capable of transferring the impact forces of the center wooden block to the impact triangles.

Preferably, the center wooden block is provided with recesses in order to accommodate the center coupling of the approaching vehicle without causing damage. In addition, it will be generally recommendable to have the lateral wooden blocks of the beam cover extend beyond the center wooden block. For this purpose the two lateral Wooden blocks are, preferably, supported by hollow cylinders made of iron and serving as spacers.

In a suitable embodiment of the invention, there is arranged vertically below the rails, which are placed on ties, and below said ties, one reinforcing rail in an inverted fashion, with clamping bows arranged between the ties. The clamping bows each are provided with two flanges facing each other and extending beyond the facing flanges of the running and reinforcement rail and capable of being pulled toward each other by screws extending transversely of the rails. In this manner, the reinforcement carrier is arranged at a considerable distance from the running track so that a great increase in the overall moment of bending resistance with little added material results. The fastening of the reinforcement beam is extremely simple and may be effected in situ with common railway tools.

With bumpers having to meet but moderate stresses, the reinforcement may consist of a rail arranged adjacent the running rails, said rail being connected to the running rails through the ties. The advantage of the simple installation of this reinforcement beam is opposed by the drawback that the moment of bending resistance of the running rails is increased only to a limited extent.

In another embodiment of the invention, at least one beam provided with two chords and one center web is connected, preferably by welding, to the running rails along its length and extends downwardly in such a manner that the web of each reinforcement beam is disposed in the plane of the web of the running rail. The connection of the reinforcement carrier, or the reinforcement carriers, respectively, with the running rails is especially close if a welded connection is involved. As a rule, however, the additional welding operations may be required only if the stresses to be met by the bumper are extraordinarily high. In particular, if double T- beams are used as reinforcement beams, a clamping of the running rails tightly onto the double T-bearns with the aid of screws and shims may be acceptable.

On bridges or similar buildings it may be recommendable to use a concrete block as the reinforcement beam for the running track. For this purpose, the running rails are adapted to be laid on a concrete block and to be intimately connected with said concrete block by means of closely spaced anchor screws which are manner, for instance, by means of threaded angle irons. The spacers are arranged at a predetermined distance from each other, for instance, at a distance of 1-1.5 yards. The frictional members are designed as to be in register with the frictional members shown in FIG. 3. The only difference being that instead of the inverted rail shapes 13, inverted rail shapes 28 are provided which are interconnected with the rail shapes 29 via a longitudinal weld 30. The rail brake bumper of FIG. 4 is designed for an especially high efliciency so that the construction of this rail brake bumper and also that of the reinforcement rails is especially heavy.

The embodiment of FIG. 5 provides double T-beams 31 with broad flanges in order to reinforce the two running rails 3, said double T-beams 31 being clamped to the running rails 3 with the aid of screws 49 and shims 32. These double T-beams with broad flanges are additionally fastened to the ties 5 by means of Wood screws 33. Spacers 34 are provided which are directly threadedly connected with the upper flanges of the double T-beams 31 having broad flanges.

In acordance with the embodiment of FIG. 6, the rail brake bumper 42 is displaceably arranged on the running rails 3 with the aid of friction members again generally referenced 2. A concrete block 35 serves to reinforce the running rails, with anchoring screws 36 being cemented into the concrete block 35 at close intervals. These anchoring screws serve to clamp the running rails 3 tightly on the concrete block. For the sake of simplicity, in FIG. 6, the rail brake bumper is shown provided with the planks to catch vehicles provided with lateral buffers. But here as well, a construction in accordance with FIG. 7 or a construction in which only one center buffer is provided is preferred, in that the lateral impact triangles of the bumper convergently extend toward a center plank for the purpose of absorbing the impact of a center buffer.

As shown in FIG. 1, the rail brake bumper may also be connected with additional friction brakes through double guide levers 37. These additional friction brakes are generally referenced 38.

Each of these additional friction brakes consists of a transverse beam 39 which interconnects two frictional members which are designed in a similar manner to those of FIG. 3. However, in the case of these additional friction brakes, the inverted rail shapes 40 are arranged on the inner surface of the running rails 3, while the brake holders 41 are disposed on the outside of the running rails. Also, with these additional friction brakes 33, brake screws 19, linings 17 and intermediate members 18 are provided in correspondence with the embodiment of FIG. 3.

These additional friction brakes become effective one after the other during the stopping of a railway vehicle. When the rail brake bumper is returned to its starting position after stopping a vehicle, the individual additional friction brakes 38 are pulled along via their double guides 37.

The rail reinforcement, in accord with the invention, extends in each case the whole length of the stopping distance. Furthermore, a sufficient portion of the running rails ahead of the rail brake bumper has to also be reinforced. It has been found that as -a rule a distance of about three yards ahead of the rail brake bumper will have to be reinforced.

As is the usual practice with railway bumpers, a hook or eye is provided on the bumper structure to permit the bumper to be repositioned on the rails by a locomotive, or other motive means, after the bumper has been displaced along the rails during a stopping action. In FIG. 1 the towing hook is shown at 50 and in the embodiment of FIG. 6, the towing hook 51 is employed.

What we claim is:

1. A bumper arrangement for stopping railway vehicles comprising, in combination, a plurality of spaced ties, a pair of spaced, running rails mounted upon and aflixed to said ties, each of said running rails having a base flange, a web and a head, a bumper stop device mounted upon said running rails, frictional connection members frictionally aflixing said bumper stop device to said running rails permitting a slidable braking movement of said bumper stop device along said running rails upon a moving railway vehicle engaging said bumper stop device, towing means defined on said bumper stop device to permit replacement of said bumper stop device along said rails after being moved by a railway vehicle, said frictional connection members being secured to said bumper stop device and having parts gripping laterally on both sides of said head of each of said running rails, means for pressing said parts toward each other transversely to said running rails to frictionally engage said rails, a pair of rigid, elongated supporting elements, a supporting element being disposed under and in engagement with each of said running rails, said elements being parallel to the associated rail and constituting the support thereof along the portion of the running rails adjacent said bumper stop device and extending forwardly and rearwardly thereof, and means directly attaching said elements to the associated rail.

2. In a bumper arrangement as in claim 1 wherein cross-connection means are interposed between said supporting elements to maintain said elements in spaced relation.

3. In a bumper arrangement as in claim 1 wherein said running rails include ends defining joints with the adjacent rails, said supporting elements extending rearwardly of said bumper stop device a distance at least as great as the slidaole braking movement of said device and extending forwardly of said device a distance beyond the rail joint nearest said device.

4. A bumper arrangement for stopping railway vehicles comprising, in combination, a plurality of spaced ties, a pair of spaced, running rails mounted upon and affixed to said ties, each of said running rails having a base flange, a web and a head, a bumper stop device mounted upon said running rails, frictional connection members frictionally aflixing said bumper stop device to said running rails permitting a slidable braking movement of said bumper stop device along said running rails upon a moving railway vehicle engaging said bumper stop device, towing means defined on said bumper st-op device to permit replacement of said bumper stop device along said rails after being moved by a railway vehicle, said frictional connection members being secured to said bumper stop device and having parts gripping laterally on both sides of said head of each of said running rails, means for pressing said parts toward each other transversely to said running rails to frictionally engage said rails, a pair of rigid, elongated supporting elements, a supporting element being disposed under and in engagement with each of said running rails, said elements being parallel to the associated rail and constituting the support thereof along the portion of the running rails adjacent said bumper stop device and extending forwardly and rearwardly thereof, said elements being directly welded to the associated running rail.

5. A bumper arrangement according to claim 4 wherein said supporting elements comprise standard running rails including a base flange, a web and a head, the base flange of said supporting elements engaging and being welded to the base flange of the associated running rail, the web of said supporting elements being arranged vertically under and parallel to the web of the associated running rail.

6. A bumper arrangement for stopping railway vehicles comprising, in combination, a plurality of spaced ties, a pair of spaced, running rails mounted upon and affixed to said ties, each of said running rails having a base flange, a web and a head, a bumper stop device mounted upon said running rails, frictional connection members frictionally affixing said bumper stop device to said running rails permitting a slidable braking movement of said bumper stop device along said running rails upon a moving railway vehicle engaging said bumper stop device, towing means defined on said bumper stop device to permit replacement of said bumper stop device along said rails after being moved by a railway vehicle, said frictional connection members being secured to said bumper stop device and having parts gripping laterally on both sides of said head of each of said running rails, means for pressing said parts toward each other transversely to said running rails to frictionally engage said rails, a pair of rigid, elongated supporting elements in the form of beams having a base flange, a web and a head, a supporting element being directly disposed under each of said running rails in parallel relation to the associated rail along the portion of the running rails adjacent said bumper stop device and extending forwardly and rearwardly thereof, and clamping means clamping the base flange of said running rails to the head of said supporting elements.

7. A bumper arrangement according to claim 6 wherein bores are defined in the head of said supporting elements, said clamping means comprising screws extending through 0 C) said bores to the underside of the head of said supporting elements.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,046,635 12/12 Perkins 23 87 1,119,626 1 2/14 Morgan 23826 1,614,208 1/27 Rawie 104-259 1,694,811 12/28 Edson 23826 2,019,135 10/35 Jaeger 104-254 2,875,953 3/59 Weber et al. 2382 FOREIGN PATENTS 553,693 6/32 Germany.

803,777 4/51 Germany.

824,959 12/51 Germany.

837,396 4/52 Germany.

881,345 11/61 Great Britain.

ARTHUR L. LA POINT, Primary Examiner.

LEO QUACKENBUSH, MILTON BUCHLER,

Examiners. 

1. A BURNER ARRANGEMENT FOR STOPPING RAILWAY VEHICLES COMPRISING, IN COMBINATION, A PLURALITY OF SPACED TIES, A PAIR OF SPACED, RUNNING RAILS MOUNTED UPON AND AFFIXED TO SAID TIES, EACH OF SAID RUNNING RAILS HAVING A BASE FLANGE, A WEB AND A HEAD, A BUMPER STOP DEVICE MOUNTED UPON SAID RUNNING RAILS, FRICTIONAL CONNECTION MEMBERS FRICTIONALLY AFFIXING SAID BUMPER STOP DEVICE TO SAID RUNNING RAILS PERMITTING A SLIDABLE BRAKING MOVEMENT OF SAID BUMPER STOP DEVICE ALONG SAID RUNNING RAILS UPON A MOVING RAILWAY VEHICLE ENGAGING SAID BUMPER STOP DEVICE, TOWING MEANS DEFINED ON SAID BUMPER STOP DEVICE TO PERMIT REPLACEMENT OF SAID BUMPER STOP DEVICE ALONG SAID RAILS AFTER BEING MOVED BY A RAILWAY VEHICLE, SAID FRICTIONAL CONNECTION MEMBERS BEING SECURED TO SAID BUMPER 